US President Joe Biden said in his final foreign policy speech on Monday that the Palestinians have suffered greatly and that they deserve peace and a decent life.

It is noteworthy that the American president did not mention the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which has been ongoing for more than 15 months, except at the end of his speech. After talking about every place in the world, he took up an important part of his efforts in the past four years, giving most of his attention to the war in Ukraine, the competition with China, and the defeat of Russia and Iran in Syria.

Biden referred to his phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, in which he stressed the need to strike a deal that would “release the hostages, return them to their families, stop the fighting, and get humanitarian aid into Gaza,” stressing that his team is working diligently to complete the deal, which could happen at any time, hinting that it could be completed before he leaves the White House in seven days.

For his part, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that negotiators on a ceasefire agreement in Gaza are close to reaching one and that the White House is in contact with President-elect Donald Trump's team regarding the talks.

Sullivan said the release of the hostages in Gaza was imminent, and the agreement could be finalized in the last week of Joe Biden's term.

"We are close to reaching an agreement and it could happen this week. I am not making promises or predictions, but the possibility exists, and we will work to translate it into reality," Sullivan told reporters.

Sullivan added that US President Joe Biden will soon speak to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the negotiations.

It is noteworthy that in a parallel context, the Egyptian state-run Cairo News Channel quoted an informed source as saying (on Monday) that intensive rounds of talks are scheduled to be held in Cairo to put the final touches on the remaining details of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority also expected, on Monday, that the security cabinet (the cabinet) would convene tomorrow, Tuesday, “to ratify the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip and the prisoner exchange agreement with Hamas.”

The official body said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to ensure that his "close partner" Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will not bring down the government over his opposition to the deal.

She stressed that the chance of this happening is "very weak," as Netanyahu has a "clear majority" within the government to pass the deal despite the opposition of Smotrich, who described it as a "disaster," as well as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

According to the authority: "If things move quickly today, it is likely that the cabinet will meet tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday), followed by a government meeting, to ratify the deal."

Earlier on Monday, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed developments in the ceasefire negotiations in the Gaza Strip during two meetings with a delegation from Hamas and US President-elect Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.

He said that Hamas launched its attack on October 7, 2023 with the support of Iran, boasting about Iran’s failure to attack Israel: “They failed twice because the United States organized a coalition of countries to stop them and ordered American planes to defend Israel.”

While Iran has come closer than ever to obtaining a nuclear weapon during his tenure, Biden says his administration has continued to squeeze the Islamic Republic with sanctions that have left Tehran's economy in "desperate straits."

Biden took office vowing to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal abandoned by his predecessor, Donald Trump. But that effort never got off the ground amid what Washington called Iranian intransigence.

“Overall, Iran is weaker than it has been in decades,” Biden asserts as he urges the incoming Trump administration to “move forward with the commitment that America will never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.”